A treasury of stories and sayings from great Chabad Chassidim of the previous generation were recently discovered in R’ Chaim Ashkenazi’s archives. * His family gave Beis Moshiach the fascinating stories, some of which are being publicized for the first time. * In the coming weeks, we will present stories and sayings from R’ Chaim Shaul Brook. * Part 1: a compilation on learning Torah and Chassidus.
From the archives of R’ Chaim Ashkenazi a”h
R’ Chaim Ashkenazi a”h (with the cap) sitting next to R’ Chaim Shaul Brook a”h at R’ Chaim’s bar mitzva. On the right is his brother, R’ Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi; on the left is R’ Nachum Goldschmidt a”h
A MELAMED WITH A SPARK OF RASHI
An elementary school teacher went to Liozna, to the Alter Rebbe, and the Alter Rebbe asked him to give a shiur to the Torah scholars of the city. The melamed was astonished.
“I only teach youngsters Gemara and Rashi. How can I teach scholars like these?” But the Alter Rebbe insisted that he do so anyway.
The melamed announced which daf the shiur would be on and all the scholars prepared questions on that daf. Incredibly, when the melamed began to teach the daf and explain it according to Rashi, all the questions they had were answered. The scholars were amazed how his explanations according to Rashi had resolved their questions.
The Alter Rebbe explained that this melamed was a spark of Rashi and he came to the world in order to show what Rashi’s commentary contains within it.
YOU CAN LEAVE IT AS “TZARICH IYUN”
There was a certain rav who had a question in a sugya which bothered him so much that he could not continue learning. He wrote his question to a friend and the friend responded: Look on Daf X in Tos’fos Y.
The rav looked up the source and did not find any connection between the words in the Tos’fos and the question that bothered him. He wrote back to his friend saying that he did not understand his answer.
The friend replied that what he meant was this: the Tos’fos there asks a question and does not answer it but remains with the expression “tzarich iyun” (additional in-depth analysis is needed), and nevertheless, the Tos’fos continues.
BECAUSE OF SO MANY S’FARIM
A rav from a big city met his friend who was a rav in a small, poor town. The rav from the big city asked his friend some questions in learning that he had, and his friend answered them well.
The rav of the big city was surprised by this. How was it that his friend was sharper than he?
His friend responded with a question: How many s’farim do you have in your house?
He said he had a large library.
The rav of the small town said that this answered his question: I have only a Shas, a Shulchan Aruch and poskim, and so I spend all my time on them, while you learn in all your s’farim and you don’t have time for Shas itself.
TZAAR GIDUL BANIM
When it was time for the wedding of one of his sons, they looked for R’ Shaul and found him learning in the Beis Midrash. When they told him they were waiting for him to come to his son’s chuppa, he closed the Gemara in annoyance and said, “Ai, tzaar gidul banim (the pain of child-rearing).”
WHAT TO SAY TO A HERETIC
R’ Shaul Brook once was traveling on the bus. As he always did, he took out a pocket Mishnayos and began learning. One of the passengers, apparently someone who had gone off the derech, said to him, “The proper place for learning is the shul. Here on the bus you should enjoy the view.”
R’ Shaul said to him, “In the Mishna it says, ‘Know how to respond to a heretic,’ but it doesn’t specify how to respond. Apparently the answer is not so nice.” At this point, R’ Shaul censured him very sharply.
A PITY
R’ M. Gansburg related that he visited R’ Shaul Brook in Tzrifin shortly before the latter’s passing, in order to give him a check. He went in to see him, having never seen him before. R’ Shaul was in a bad way. He was lying in bed and even speaking was difficult for him because the cursed disease had consumed him.
When he saw R’ Gansburg looking at him, R’ Shaul motioned towards the watch on his hand as though to say: It’s a pity for the wasted time; go and learn.
PICTURE OF THE MITTELER REBBE
R’ Shaul Brook once told us that he has a picture of the Mitteler Rebbe and we were very surprised, of course, since there is no picture of him extant. He then showed us the Mitteler Rebbe’s s’farim and said: This is his picture.
LEARN UNTIL THE SKY FALLS
R’ Shaul Brook would say: You need to learn, and to learn without interruption. Even if you see the sky falling on you, don’t stop until the moment after it falls on you.
THIS IS HOW YOU PREPARE A TRACTATE
R’ Shaul Brook said that when he was a menahel in the yeshiva in Tel Aviv, R’ Povarsky, who was rosh yeshiva at the time, asked him: “Which masechta will they learn next year?” This was before the start of the new year.
R’ Shaul was taken aback: Why do you care now? You are known as a talmid chacham and at the beginning of the year, you will be informed.
R’ Povarsky said: I go over the entire masechta before I start giving shiurim on it.
THE TANACH IS NOT A STORYBOOK
R’ Shaul told me several times: Don’t read Tanach in bed before going to sleep, because it’s not a storybook. Read it sitting up at the table.
THE CIRCLE OF LEARNING
R’ Shaul finished learning the entire masechta with his class by the end of the year and left the final Tos’fos unlearned for lack of time. The following year he said they should bring the previous masechta and only after finishing learning all the Tos’fos of that masechta did he start the new masechta.
THE LIST OF ERRORS AND LIST OF CORRECTIONS
When R’ Shaul gave a shiur on Tanya in the yeshiva in Tel Aviv, he said several times regarding a difficult part that it was surely a printing mistake. The talmidim were upset with him, especially R’ Yoel Kahn, who said “How could there be a mistake in Tanya?”
Then the Rebbe’s list of corrections was published and R’ Yoel showed that there were corrections the Rebbe made in that same place but not always the correction that R’ Shaul thought it was. R’ Shaul said: Why is it surprising that I couldn’t get it exactly like the Rebbe; the main thing is that we understood that there is a mistake here.
AH, WHAT WRITING
The Chassid, R’ Nota of Maladzyechna, a Chassid of the Mitteler Rebbe, was completely immersed in Chassidus. R’ Nota was once coming back from somewhere and he was so absorbed in thinking Chassidus that he stepped into a large garbage heap and couldn’t extricate himself, so he sat down there and took out a maamer and began to learn. The residents of the town, who knew that the rav was supposed to return, went out to look for him and found him in the garbage heap learning Chassidus.
R’ Nota once returned from the Mitteler Rebbe and when he arrived home, he was told that his daughter had died and he sat Shiva. When people came to console him, they saw his face redden and they were sure he would burst into tears. But then he said, “Ah, what a manuscript I brought from the Rebbe.”
LEARNING GEMARA
R’ Shaul described the learning in his town when he was a boy. Throughout the week they learned Gemara. On Shabbos, the melamed would seat all the students in a half circle and would tell the first one: Say the beginning of the sugya by heart. Then he would tell the next once to continue, and so on. So they had to know the entire sugya by heart.
NO S’FARIM THERE
While learning, when we would look up an answer, he would say: What will you do in the heavenly court? There are no s’farim there and so you have to know it by heart.
TRAVELING WITHOUT WHEELS
When R’ Shaul wanted to illustrate the dangers of learning incorrectly, he would tell about someone who traveled in a wagon without wheels because of a kal v’chomer and a g’zeira shava:
At first, he traveled in a wagon with four wheels. When one wheel broke, he made a kal v’chomer; if a wagon with two wheels can move, kal v’chomer a wagon with three wheels can certainly move.
When another wheel broke, he made a g’zeira shava that just as a wagon with two wheels can move, his own wagon could move too.
When another wheel broke, he made a kal v’chomer from a sled. If a sled can travel without wheels, kal v’chomer a wagon can travel on one wheel.
When the final wheel broke, he made a g’zeira shava from a sled.
You can figure it out for yourselves, concluded R’ Shaul, where he got to after kal v’chomers and g’zeiros shavos like those.